Russia Says No to Gates on Anti Missile Defense

As it seems we continue to develop a missile defense shield that will defend part of Europe from any missile attack from Iran. At first glance, this seems a valid response from the threat a radical Iran presents. However, the other side of the coin rests on Russia's interpretation of why we are putting a missile defense shield in their backyard.

Obviously, they are still paranoid about United States intentions regarding NATO gobbling up all of the old Soviet satellite countries. With the intent of deploying components of the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, Russia has tied the new nuclear arms treaty deal with our removal of AMD.

The Russians and Georgians are opposed to the shield as they say it adds to "a policy of encirclement". But, can we do without it and still keep Iran under wraps? Do we need to stop deployment in order to pacify Prime Minister Putin. Putin is in the process of rebuilding Russian military capabilities. New aircraft, deployment of naval forces in the Mediterrean, which hasn't been done in decades, show Putin is definitely showing his ability to control Russia. I wonder whether they can afford to get in a spending war with NATO and especially, America? Russian spending is still in the $50 billion range while the U.S of A has spent around $350 billion as of last year. Russia rose from 7th to 3rd in global military spending.....lakotahope
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrey Nesterenko told a press briefing, commenting on the initiative of the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to deploy US AMD elements on Russia’s soil.

Poland, a staunch ally of the United States, and the Czech Republic, were chosen after an analysis of the possible missile trajectories from Iran to Europe and from Iran to the United States. Germany was considered but Poland and the Czech Republic provided the best interceptor and radar coverage of the trajectories, Obering said. Once installed, protection would stretch from Poland to Portugal and across to Ukraine and parts of western Russia.

NATO is currently developing its own missile defense system. The so-called theater protection system is designed protect ground troops and small areas rather than cities and entire countries. Despite its modest scale, the NATO project has been subject to serious delays.

Lieutenant General Henry Obering, said the U.S. has already spent $180 billion on the shield program for Eastern Europe, made clear it that would remain outside NATO.

"If it was passed to NATO, there would be delays in deploying it," he said. In any case, he said he saw no reason why the U.S. and NATO systems could not be complementary. Referring to the U.S. shield, he said "this could be viewed as a U.S., a Polish and a Czech Republic contribution to a missile defense capability for NATO in general and it certainly complements what could be coming out of a NATO missile defense program on its own."

Moscow has harshly criticized the U.S. plan, saying it was targeted against Russia. Obering dismissed such suggestions, saying the shield was "purely defensive. This in no way, shape or form threatens the Russia missile fleet," said Obering. "There are only a small number of interceptors while Russia has thousands of nuclear weapons. The numbers just don't add up."

He invited Russia to visit the missile sites in the U.S. and in Poland and Czech Republic, provided those governments agreed.....nytimes